{"id":4902,"date":"2018-08-06T07:31:34","date_gmt":"2018-08-06T07:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/?p=4902"},"modified":"2018-08-17T17:19:36","modified_gmt":"2018-08-17T17:19:36","slug":"worldcon-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/2018\/08\/06\/worldcon-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Worldcon Time!"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s August, and that means that worldcon is coming around once again.\u00a0\u00a0 (In a properly ordered universe, worldcon would be coming on Labor Day weekend but sadly that seems to be a lost cause since Dragoncon stole those dates).<\/p>\n

This year’s gathering is in San Jose, California.\u00a0\u00a0 It ought to be called ConJose II, but it’s not.\u00a0\u00a0 I like my worldcons to have names, not numbers, however, so I refuse to accede to this new twitch of numbering cons instead of naming them.\u00a0\u00a0 The SanJose folks keep insisting that this worldcon is not ConJose II, though.\u00a0\u00a0 So be it.\u00a0\u00a0 In the tradition of my Not A Blog, and of course the famous John W. Campbell Award (Not A Hugo), I shall henceforth refer to this year’s gathering as Not ConJose II.<\/p>\n

I have cut way down on the number of cons I attend, due to the press of work, but there’s no way I’d miss a worldcon, by any name.\u00a0\u00a0 I’ve only missed one in the last thirty years.\u00a0\u00a0 Dragoncon and San Diego Comicon and GenCon and many other cons are now much bigger, but worldcon remains the original, and the best, the heart of the fannish community.\u00a0\u00a0 Worldcon is like a family reunion.\u00a0\u00a0 And yes, like any large family, we have our share of drunken uncles, loony cousins, and snot-nosed kids… but still, family is family.\u00a0\u00a0 I’ll be there for the whole con.\u00a0 I hope to see many of you in SanJose.\u00a0 Worldcon is great time for getting together with old friends and making new ones.<\/p>\n

I know that some of you will be hoping to get your books autographed at the con.\u00a0\u00a0 There will be several opportunities for that.<\/p>\n

My week will start on Tuesday, August 14, with a special fundraiser on behalf of LOCUS, an evening with John Picacio.\u00a0\u00a0 That event is not an actual part of the con, so tickets will be sold separately.\u00a0 I will not be signing at the fundraiser, no… but we will have hundreds of pre-signed books available for purchase at the event.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/foxrwc.showare.com\/eventperformances.asp?evt=210<\/p>\n

I also have three scheduled signings at Not ConJose II itself.\u00a0 Friday at noon and Sunday at 1pm, I will be signing in the official autograph area.\u00a0\u00a0 The lines will be capped, however; there’s a limit to how many books I can sign in an hour.\u00a0\u00a0 (No, my hand doesn’t fall off.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s my lower back that protests).\u00a0 Sorry, I can’t do personalizations or inscriptions, and we have a limit of one book per person.\u00a0\u00a0 Mind you, if the lines are short, I will sometimes loosen the rules and sign a second book, etc.\u00a0\u00a0 Don’t count on that, though; my lines have not been short in years.\u00a0\u00a0 Oh, and yes, I will sign things other than books.\u00a0\u00a0 Games, cards, replica swords, photographs, program books, interesting body parts…. but still, only one item per person, and no personalizations.\u00a0\u00a0 And I don’t sign babies, pets, or books written by other authors.<\/p>\n

Besides these two general signings, we also have the Wild Cards signing, scheduled for Saturday morning at 10am in the dealer’s room.\u00a0\u00a0 That’s a mass signing.\u00a0 Melinda Snodgrass, Caroline Spector, Marko Kloos, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Kevin Andrew Murphy, and several other Wild Cards writers and creators will be joining me, to deface your books with their illegible scrawls.\u00a0 But at that event we will be signing ONLY Wild Cards books, so please don’t bring copies of any of my other works… those you can get signed at the general signings.<\/p>\n

I do prefer to limit my autographing to these four scheduled events.\u00a0\u00a0 I want to enjoy worldcon like everyone else, without having to scrawl my way through it.\u00a0 So please do not approach me before or after panels, at the Hugos, in the corridors, at the parties, while I’m having dinner (or breakfast, or lunch), or in the restrooms to ask for an autograph.\u00a0\u00a0 Your understanding would be much appreciated.<\/p>\n

Aside from signing things, what am I doing<\/em> at Not ConJoseII? you may ask.<\/p>\n

At 5pm on Friday I will be part of the Gardner Dozois Memorial.\u00a0\u00a0 A sad event, but I think we’ll have some laughs as well.\u00a0\u00a0 Gardner was the funniest man in our field for half a century, he’d want to hear us laughing.<\/p>\n

There’s also to be a Wild Cards panel, though I am not sure just when.\u00a0\u00a0 The present time is a conflict for me.\u00a0\u00a0 Depending on where the panel gets moved, I may or may not be on it.\u00a0 But there will be a Wild Cards panel regardless.<\/p>\n

Oh, and keep your eyes on Thursday.\u00a0\u00a0 We’re looking at doing a presentation and trailer screening for the new NIGHTFLYERS television series that debuts this fall.\u00a0\u00a0 Details are still being worked out\u00a0\u00a0 When we have more definite news, I will let you know.<\/p>\n

And that’s it, so far as my public participation in Not ConJoseII is concerned.\u00a0\u00a0 But of course, I will be there all weekend, wandering the dealer’s room, drinking in the bar, visiting the art show… and, of course, hitting the parties.\u00a0\u00a0 That’s what worldcon is all about.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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It’s August, and that means that worldcon is coming around once again.\u00a0\u00a0 (In a properly ordered universe, worldcon would be coming on Labor Day weekend but sadly that seems to be a lost cause since Dragoncon stole those dates). This year’s gathering is in San Jose, California.\u00a0\u00a0 It ought to be called ConJose II, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[30,31,40],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4902"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4902"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4915,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4902\/revisions\/4915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}